Subject: OH Stronghold Pre-release Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 14:54:36 -0500 (EST) From: bz556@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Joshua E. Randall) To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Columbus, Ohio Stronghold Pre-release Report by Joshua 'Enjolras' Randall I played in the 21 February 1998 Stronghold Pre-release held in Columbus, Ohio. The event was poorly and sloppily run, belying the good things I had heard about Andon events. Nevertheless, I was pleased to have a chance to see the new cards and puzzle over them in play. Playing a Limited format tournament with a new set brings back the feeling of wonderment I had when I first learned to play Magic. I ended up withdrawing from the tournament after the third round (at about 4:00 PM) with a 2-1 match record. I felt my deck to be solid, but lacking in significant areas necessary to make it a winning one. Details follow, including my deck listing, round-by-round notes, and some general comments on Stronghold. Tournament Details ------------------ Location: Knights of Columbus Hall, Columbus, Ohio Date: 21 Feb 1998 Format: Limited (Sealed), Swiss rounds, Paris mulligan # Players: 250+ Sanctioned: yes Deck Listing ------------ W/R/B "Middle of the Pack Sealed Deck" White (8) ----- Youthful Knight (1W, 2/1 First Strike) Venerable Monk (2W, 2/2, gain 2 life when comes into play) Elite Javelineer Cloudchaser Eagle Warrior Angel (4WW, 3/4 Flying, built-in Spirit Link) Anoint Smite (W, Instant, Destroy target blocked creature.) Circle of Protection: Red Red (5) --- Fireslinger Convulsing Licid (2R, 2/2, "Ench'd creature cannot block.") Flowstone Hellion (4R, 3/3 celerity, 0: +1/-1) Flowstone Salamander Rolling Thunder Black (7) ----- Wall of Souls (1B, 0/4 Wall, deals dmg for each it takes) Morgue Thrull (2B, 2/2, sac: put top 3 cards of lib in grave) Serpent Warrior (2B, 3/3, lose 3 life when comes into play) Coffin Queen Darkling Stalker Coercion Evincar's Justice Artifact (2) -------- Manakin Watchdog Land (18) ---- 7 Plains 4 Mountain 6 Swamp 1 Cinder Marsh (B/R) Creatures: 16 = 40% Spells: 6 = 15% Land: 18 = 45% Notable "Sideboard" Cards ------------------------- Circle of Protection: Blue Flickering Ward (should have been main deck) Light of Day Ancient Runes Invasion Plans (complicated - see Stronghold list) Enfeeblement Death Stroke (BB, Sorcery, Destroy target tapped creature.) Deck Comments ------------- I was pleased with my creature selection. I had some fast "beatdown" creatures as well as many with good abilities, plus the Warrior Angel as a finisher. I actually left out some playable creatures in order to make room for spells. My spell selection was mediocre. I absolutely should have had Flickering Ward in my main deck; I don't know what I was thinking in leaving it out. Including the CoP: Red main deck was purely a metagame choice. I was (and still am) astounded as the quality and viciousness of the Red cards in Stronghold and decided that those not playing Red had better be prepared to fight it. My deck did both. Looking around confirmed that other players agreed with my assessment. My mana ratio was iffy. I had double-colored spells in all three of my colors, but all were late-game cards. Strangely, the color I had the hardest time getting was Black, despite having 7 sources of it. I never had a problem with Red despite two double-colored cards and only 5 sources. My deck's weaknesses (and these are, in my opinion, fatal ones) were complete lack of targeted anti-artifact, only one anti-enchantment, and weak targeted anti-creature. My only chance of winning was to have my creatures arrive consistently and wear my opponent down. Looking at my remaining cards, I probably could have gone two- colored in R/W or R/B. This would have made my deck more consistent but less flexible. More on two colored decks later. Round-by-round Details ---------------------- Round 1 vs. Max Holloway (DCI # 707787) (R/W/U) ------- Max wins the coin toss and goes first, putting out a Flowstone Shambler (2R, 2/2, R: +1/-1). He follows this up with Hesitation, a Blue Enchantment that counters the next spell cast. Several turns of being pounded by the Shambler for 3 makes my life total dip dangerously low. I am holding CoP: Red but cannot afford to have it countered by Hesitation. I also have Evincar's Justice and as soon as I get to two Swamps I cast it. Hesitation is gone and I can then put the CoP into play. Thereafter I stabilize my life at 5 and gradually gain board control with Fireslinger, who combines nicely with the Circle. Coffin Queen brings my previously killed Flowstone Salamander back into play, and the red-hot lizard goes the distance. Along the way Max attempted to counter two of my spells with Power Sink and Mana Leak (1U, Counter target spell unless caster pays an additional 3.), but both times I had enough mana to pay the extra. For the second game I sideboard in Flickering Ward (replacing Anoint) and Circle: Blue (replacing something). This game is mine from the start as I have Fireslinger out early and sneak the Circle: Red out when Max taps out of Blue. This shuts down his main creature assault. I eventually get to six mana and Max obligingly taps out of Blue again, allowing me to cast Warrior Angel. Next turn I Flickering Ward her to prot/Red and she almost singlehandedly kills Max. He does cast a Spindrift Drake (U, 2/1 Flying, upkeep: U), but cannot keep up with the damage race. The 6-point life swing provided by the Angel each time she attacks is incredible. I end the game at 27 life. Round 2 vs. Adam Chillcott (no DCI #) (R/W) ------- Adam is a young man, about 8 or 10. He has a decent deck but makes a few play errors. He also plays too tentatively and conservatively. Adam is land screwed in game one. I Coercion him on the third turn and seen a hand full of creature enchantments and Red creatures to his 2 Plains. I make him discard his only White creature, but he quickly draws into Mountains. However, the game by this time revolves around my ideal creature mix of excellent blockers (Youthful Knight, Javelineer, and Wall of Souls) and two beefy attackers, Flowstone Salamander and Hellion. Adam cannot safely attack and seems unwilling to gang-block my larger creatures. He takes significant amounts of damage from his creatures running into the Wall of Souls despite me pointing out its ability. In one disastrous turn for him he loses a Craven Giant (2R, 4/1, cannot block) and a Lowland Giant (both pumped up with creature enchantments) to my blockers. Thereafter he commits suicide by running his creatures into the Wall after my creatures have pounded him down to low life. Game two is entirely Adam's. He puts out an early Skyshroud Falcon (1W, 1/1 Flying non-tapping) and enchants it with Hero's Resolve, making it a 2/6 monstrosity. I cannot kill it in time and am also a bit land screwed. Adam patiently attacks me with the Falcon for several turns. Later in the game he has creature dominance but does not attack, presumably because he may lose a few attackers to my desperation blockers. He wins anyway. The third game is a tense, back and forth affair that was the best I played all day. Adam quickly puts out several small creatures. I stall for time with Venerable Monk, but he answers with a high-power Red creature (Craven or Lowland Giant, I believe). I play the Flickering Ward from my hand and pray he cannot kill the Monk in response. Thankfully, he cannot. We go back and forth for a while with me putting out a few blockers to his growing army of beefy Red guys. Adam apparently fears attacking and losing any creatures. I draw Cloudchaser Eagle and hold it for a long time to guard against any nasty enchanted Falcons or the like. Adam has out Heat of Battle, a Red Enchantment that deals 1 damage to a creature's controller whenever that creature blocks. This makes it all the more puzzling as to why he did not attack me and let the Heat of Battle punish me for blocking. Finally I grow so fearful of this possibility that I play the Cloudchaser and destroy his Enchantment. In the same turn I return Flickering Ward and immediately re-Ward the Eagle to prot/Red. By this time I have a lot of Plains and Mountains but no Swamps. Adam has out five or six creatures to my Eagle, Monk, and Hellion. I finally draw a Swamp and take a risk by playing a Serpent Warrior, losing 3 life. Adam still does not attack, but I decide that I must break up the creature stalemate at all costs. I do have my Coffin Queen in hand as a backup. I attack with the Serpent and Hellion. Adam does not block and takes six damage. He *still* does not attack despite my vastly depleted defenses. I suppose he did not wish to lose any of his Red creatures to my Warded Eagle. I repeat this same attack twice more, reducing Adam's life to 4 (he had previously gained 2 from his own Venerable Monk). By this time I have drawn Rolling Thunder and am desperate to end the game before Adam realizes he can bum-rush me on the attack and nearly kill me. I do not know if he has the burn to finish me thereafter but do not wish to find out. I Roll him for 4 exactly and heave a huge sigh of relief when he admits defeat. Round 3 vs. Curtis Sprowl (DCI # 139664) (R/G/W) ------- Now that I am out of the early rounds my luck and skills abandon me. Curtis's deck sports a variety of burly Green creatures, including Spined Wurm (4G, 5/4), with Red for burn and more beef, and White for Shadow creatures and control in the form of Master Decoy. In the first game he absolutely wrecks me with an early flyer and Soltari Lancer, then follows up with the aforementioned Decoy and Wurm. I do manage to Coercion him and see this card: Volrath's Laboratory 5 Artifact Rare When you play Volrath's laboratory, choose a color and creature type. 5,T: Put a token into play. Treat this as a 2/2 creature of chosen color and type. Needless to say, I make him discard this. It doesn't matter as his creatures beat the tar out of me. Game two is a bit more even but several play errors seal my fate. I handle his early low toughness creatures with Fireslinger, though I do take an alarming amount of self inflicted damage. Curtis gets Volrath's Laboratory into play and I mentally curse myself for not adding Ancient Runes from the sideboard. (Mistake #1. The Lab was out long enough that he would have taken at least 8 to 10 points of damage from it had I used and drawn the Runes.) While Curtis builds up Blue 2/2 Slivers, I put out my Flowstone creatures and Javelineer. I draw Flickering Ward and make my Javelineer prot/Blue. I half-heartedly attack through his Slivers but fail to press my opportunity. (Mistake #2. A prot/Blue pumped-up Hellion could have dealt 5 points of unblockable damage per turn. The Ward could be returned to my hand and re-cast on a blocking creature.) Curtis attacks and I block some Slivers, discovering that we both have Anoint. The net result is that I take some damage and am down to 8 life. A little later, he Shocking Grasps with buyback my Fireslinger and I Anoint it, eventually realizing that the proper play is to have it kill itself and make the Grasp fizzle (Mistake #3). This I do the next time Curtis tries that play. By this time Curtis has five 2/2 Blue Slivers and I still do not figure out that I need to attack. Although I am holding both Rolling Thunder and Evincar's Justice, I cast neither, though one or both could have cleared the way for my creatures to attack (Mistake #4). Curtis finally swarms over my defenses with Slivers. At this point I withdraw from the tournament, both because I doubt that I can survive five more rounds of Swiss and because my friend Mark is leaving to drive up to Cleveland, where we both live. Conclusion ---------- The Tempest + Stronghold mix includes some strong cards that border on brokenness in Limited play. In particular, Volrath's Laboratory and Cursed Scroll (in Artifacts) are very difficult to destroy, and either can win the game for their controller. The high quality and sheer number of good Red spells and creatures make Red a popular and successful color. Looking at my Stronghold list I see 13 Red creatures (1 Wall), all of which are at least playable, most of which are good, and only two of which have RR in the casting cost (Flowstone Mauler, 4RR, and Spitting Hydra, 3RR). Red also has five burn spells in Stronghold. Added to those in Tempest, that gives an excellent chance that any player in a TE/ST event will have at least some burn. White was also surprisingly strong. The Tempest Shadow guys and the Stronghold en-Kor creatures (who can redirect damage to another creature you control) provide consistent damage dealing, and the latter are hard to kill. The damage preven- tion and life-gain that White has also make it a good choice for a slower control deck. Finally, White has a few small flyers (e.g. Armored Pegasus and Skyshroud Falcon) plus the formidable Warrior Angel. I saw few base Black decks although it did provide some good creatures. In addition to its small Shadow creatures, Black has three large flyers (Skyshroud Vampire, Crovax the Cursed, and Revenant) and several smaller flyers. Its creature elimination is top-notch, although many of these spells have BB in the casting cost. Black also gained three discard cards in Stronghold, and combined with those in Tempest that gives Black a good way to disrupt its opponent. I believe that early discard in Limited is extremely powerful as it pre-emptively destroys cards that you might otherwise be unable to stop. Blue seemed relegated to a supporting role as well. Between Tempest and Stronghold Blue has a good base of countermagic. This plus its pingers, flyers, and creature bouncers make Blue a decidedly slow, board controlling color. For whatever reason none of the decks at the top tables had much if any Blue in them. Interestingly, there were many base Green decks among the third round undefeated decks. Green has even more "fatties" than Red, though more that have GG in their casting cost. Green still suffers from an utter lack of effective anti- creature, but that can be taken care of in other colors. A much higher than normal portion of decks were two colored. As I mentioned, I easily could have played a two color deck. This indicates to me that Tempest and Stronghold contain fewer marginal cards in all colors than did Mirage, Visions, and Weatherlight. Apparently Wizards has succeeded in their goal of making Limited format decks nearly as strong as some constructed format decks. I briefly mentioned my disappointment at the shoddy running of the pre-release. To me, it is inexcusable to advertise an event to start at 10:30 and have it actually begin after noon, to run out of promotional cards because the event is massively oversubscribed, and to have a location that is way too small for the number of people present. I intend to complain to Andon about this and would be interested in hearing from other players who have thoughts on this one way or the other. Acknowledgements ---------------- Bobby 'Bzzatch' Ghaheri, for selling to Black Border Bozos. Mark Freiman, for transportation. Mike Leeson, for accomodation. Frank Kusumoto, for the Dojo. To all these people and anyone else I've forgotten, Thanks! -- Joshua E. Randall bz556@cleveland.freenet.edu